salt

I did like how the episode started with two soldiers debating who was the better fighter...sounds like something from this forum :D

I'm conflicted about this one. The good was really good, and the bad was really bad. Something about the Joff/hookers scene didn't feel right...it felt more like GRRRR I'M MEAN than someone actually getting sadistic pleasure, and it dragged on too long. Qarth was awkward as hellllll. Bad dialog, invoking the rite sounded cheesey, and the graphics with the doors opening didn't feel right. Besides making me very aware I was looking at a greenscreen, the vastness of the city clashed with how small the reception felt..."Welcome to the greatest city that ever was or ever will be! Here is the entire ruling council, with 10 guards." Oxcross was great, so were the Tyrion scenes. Liked Renly and Stannis but wanted more. Renly saying he used to love Stannis, however...another example of TV Renly retaining very little of book Renly. Shadowbaby....nah. The scene felt rushed, and why the hell was it screeching like some Harry Potter monster? Visually it looked cool, otherwise I thought the scene was weak.

Xaro: I invoke sumai! Merchant: The fuck you talking about Xaro: No clue. But I'm going to cut my hand now and we'll let Dany in so she can start doing something this season Merchant: K

Harrenhall in the opening credits- WOW!!

No, you really don't. Out of necessity posed by both budget and time restraints the show has already cut numerous characters, and will cut many more. Unless Meera does something integral to the plot that GRRM warned them about, we likely won't see her. Its possible that they could condense both the reeds into one character, but I think the likelihood is that neither of them will make it to the show.

Cersei's still bad, but they took away her single most simply evil act- having babies and children murdered. She'll still be a villain, but the show is making her a more sympathetic one.

Of course, as he was partying his way to KL, he was also closing off the food trade, starving his future subjects to death, which was a useful tactic to cause disarray in the capital. And the guy didn't care at all about minimizing losses. Book Renly was preparing to launch an attack on Stannis's army at dawn because it would be super cool and dramatic u guyz, despite the fact that charging with the rising sun directly in the eyes of his men would have meant needless losses for his side. But that was ok, he had plenty of other men to replace the dead ones. I wouldn't put Renly on the same level as Prince Doran, not by a long shot. I agree that the snake in the grass has managed things pretty well so far (although Q-tip's Eastern adventure certainly didn't go as planned).

This is Westeros, not England. The only "correct" pronunciation is the one intended by GRRM who created this imaginary family, and I'm fairly certain I've never heard him pronounce it 'Tirrel' as show Loras does. Ti-rell or Tye-rell is almost certainly the way to go.

She's not a normal acceptable person. She's a camp-follower prostitute secretly in the employ of a wealthy dwarf with severe women issues serving as the powerful adviser to a sociopath teenage king. Whats normal about that? I'm fine with TV Shae. In the books I never got the impression that she had genuine feelings for Tyrion- shes a prostitute, its all business. All that's important for the story is that Tyrion starts believe she does. Shes also kind of dumb and frivolous. which is true to the books. There are plenty of strong female characters in ASOIAF- Shae is not one of them. The show has already gone out of its way to make some female characters stronger and more charismatic than they were in the books- Margery, while certainly schooled in the game of thrones, was a fairly minor character in the books, while in the show she's been introduced as a plotting mastermind of House Tyrell's ambition for power. I wouldn't be surprised if the show makes the Joff assassination her idea instead of the QoT's. However, if you turn EVERY female character into Littlefinger With Boobs, it gets ridiculous. There are frivolous female characters just like there are frivolous male characters, and Shae is one of them.

*Ygritte takes off her furs, Jon stares with a tormented expression, then runs away* "Lord Commander, I saw it. I saw...something." "Whatever it was, I daresay you'll see it again."

Theon's scene- burning the letter and being baptized by the priest of the Drowned God- Wow. That was downright cinematic. Game of Thrones is the only show on TV I can think of that can pull off something like that. They're really making use of the fact that so many people are watching on HDTVs these days, the quality was like something out of a Ridley Scott film. Had anyone walked in the room at that scene, they would have thought for sure I was watching a movie and not a television show.

I know the priest blessing Theon wasn't actually Aeron Damphair...but holy shit he should be. That guy was fantastic.

This was the best episode of the season so far, by a long shot. Thank goodness it didn't suck, I was starting to get worried.

... Have you read the books?

Oh, Littlefinger is plenty nasty. The "Only Cat." line as he shoves Lysa to her death was utterly unnecessary, it only served the purpose of making her last few moments even more confusing and painful.

In my opinion this is one of the most commonly misunderstood lines from the books- directly after saying this Mel talks about how at all hours of the night she has been frantically searching the flames for any sign of Stannis. I think this line was referring to the fact that with Stannis marching off to war she is constantly worried about her Azor Ahai, not that she hasn't been having sex with him. However, I certainly think the shadow babies were made through sex, you don't get pregnant with blood.

Ok. I really don't understand this "there's too much sex in the HBO show" thing. I hear it constantly on this forum, and it confuses the hell out of me. The show doesn't show even 10 percent of the sex and debauchery that takes place in the books. There is a scene in the books where a woman at Harrenhall known to sleep with Lannister soldiers is locked naked in the stocks in the middle of a courtyard so the men can come up and rape her any time they feel like it. There is a scene where Euron's men strip and entire family of sisters naked and make them serve them dinner, and one of the Ironborn starts to rape one of them on the table as her little sisters watch and cry. Neither of these scenes forwarded the plot in any way, or let us learn something about the characters that we didn't already know. I can promise you that neither of these scenes will make it into the show. The HBO show has been practically puritanical compared to the shit we see in the books. I'm confused as to how someone can read something of this nature and be totally fine, yet suddenly be offended when they see a tiny fraction of it on screen.

This is purely an invention of TV, based on nothing from the books. And Stannis would have no interest in fathering a bastard, something he associated with Robert.

So far, Robert is the only Baratheon brother to have been portrayed faithfully in the show. Renly in almost a completely new character, from what we saw in season 1 he retained maybe 15 percent of the essence of the book character. Stannis also seems to have been changed pretty drastically, though its still early on. Which is fine, it doesn't ruin the show, but its disappointing for the readers like me who thought the Baratheon brothers and their dysfunctional relationship with one another was one of the best parts of the books. Aside from Stannis and the confirmation that it was Joffrey and not Cersei who ordered the killings ( :(), I liked the episode. The Iron Islands were great, very faithful to the Theon chapter in the book. I loved Gendry and Arya ("You shouldn't insult people who are bigger than you." "Then I'll never get to insult anyone!"). OK episode, but out of the 12 we've seen so far this falls somewhere in the bottom 4 for me.

Terrible Stannis scenes. Stannis having sex with Mel, fine. Grunting with ecstasy as he does it? Not fine. And the hopeful "A son!?" line...so un-Stannis like it made me cringe.